Paper towel dispensers are often provided in public bathrooms, adjacent to sinks and in other areas where a convenient and disposable drying medium is desired. Known paper towel dispensers may utilize proximity, light, or motion sensors to detect when a individual towel or a length of a continuous roll of towels should be dispensed. When dispensing a length of towel from a continuous roll of towels, these dispensers may be provided with a means for determining when an adequate length of towel has been dispensed. The means may include driving a dispenser motor for a fixed length of time or sensing the number of rotations of the roll of towels or a dispensing mechanism. For safety and convenience reasons, these towel dispensers may also be powered by batteries, photovoltaic cells or similar power sources. Commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,772,291, 6,105,898, and 6,293,486 disclose automated towel dispensers and the disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Prior art towel dispensers, such as those found in the above-referenced patents, may sense the complete rotation of a drive roller of a known diameter to dispense the desired length of towel. Upon receiving a signal from a sensor, a drive motor rotates the drive roller which dispenses a towel from a continuous roll. When the drive roller has made a full revolution, a magnetically activated switch may halt the motor. The length of towel dispensed is roughly equal to the circumference of the drive roller. To modify the dispenser to deliver towels of different length, a drive roller of a different diameter may be installed in the dispenser.
Improvements to these known towel dispensers are desirable so that control of the length of towel dispensed in enhanced.